December 4, 2013

Posted by Brian aka ChaosMTG.

When looking for topics for today’s article, an obvious choice that was suggested to me was a Christmas special… But, of course, that’s too obvious. Then I realized something, so, I guess I have an unintentional theme I’m connecting this week’s article with the last one in “Things I could have done last week that I didn’t realize until now.” Last week’s article was posted on November 27th which, statistically, about 0.2% of you (in the world, according to Wikipedia… I don’t have access to our demographics to give you a real percentage) might immediately recognize as the first day of Hanukkah. So instead of a Christmas special, today I’ll be giving you my take on a Hanukkah special.

And by that, I mean I’m going to be talking about white and blue things. Eight of them, actually. (Ironically, Gahiji is in the Christmas colors, but I didn’t notice that until it was too late…) And because I like sticking to my themes, since I’m giving you one for each day, I might as well go for one at each CMC from 1 to 8.

Remove Enchantments
I think I might have talked about this before, but Remove Enchantments is ancient tech at its finest.While this card makes perfect sense, its original wording is unclear and its oracle wording is a wall of text that is honestly harder to read than Ice Cauldron(It probably says something that I love both cards though). Here’s a quick breakdown of what it does into a nice bulletpointed list.

Return to your hand

All enchantments you both own and control

All Auras you own attached to permanents you control

All Auras you own attached to attacking creatures your opponents control

Then destroy

All other enchantments you control

All other Auras attached to permanents you control

All other Auras attached to attacking creatures your opponents control.

So, what doesn’t this hit? Things you own but don’t control that aren’t enchanting things you control or attacking creatures your opponents control, auras your opponents control attached to things controlled by each other, curses you don’t control, and auras your opponents control attached to nonattacking things. If nothing else, this is the single best answer to Bane of Progress in an enchantment heavy deck.

Samurai of the Pale Curtain
Possibly one of the most innocuous graveyard hate cards around. A 2/2 for 2 that can become a 3/3 that passively hates graveyards… And it’s an uncommon at that!

Rule of Law
Being white somehow exempts this card from the stigma its blue cousin Arcane Laboratory gets, but it’s just as good and, of course, functionally identical for decks that run both colors.

Æthertow
While targeted removal at four mana isn’t usually great, being able to take out two creatures for four manda is great, especially at instant speed. While it usually doesn’t make the final cut, it is always in the initial list of any white and blue deck I build.

Mist of Stagnation
They’ve been told Stasis is unfun; I still don’t believe them. But for those who think like them, there’s Mist of Stagnation. It’s like Stasis, but everyone gets to untap equal to the number of things in their graveyard. This card could easilly pull out a comback from nowhere for a graveyard deck or play some huge political roles in metas that like their graveyards.

Tomorrow, Azami’s Familiar
Everyone who likes drawing cards raise their hand. If you raised your hand, this card is for you, if you didn’t it’s for you too! If you did, you might like digging three cards deep to get somethign even better while resisting things like Underworld Dreams that like punishing you for drawing. And for those of you who don’t like drawing, well, Tomorrow has your back. While it’s around, you won’t be drawing cards at all!

Worldpurge
Aside from Karn, Worldpurge is the closest thing to a real reset button the game has, resetting everything but graveyards and life totals. The only real problem this has is that it’s a bit too balanced. At eight mana, I don’t think many people would be complaning if the player that cast it was able to float a bit over to regain some board position. While there are downsides, I think this card has a lot of potential in an Esper deck that relies on using things from its graveyard. (Maybe something with Bloodghast?)

Warning:Bonus Content – Do NOT Try This at HomeGame variants are common in every game, so I thought today I’d leave you with two, one you should try and one you should avoid at all costs.

The first one isn’t actually Magic related, but it lead to the Magic one, so it’s worth mentioning (it’s also the one you should try). This is actually a variant of Euchre using two Euchre decks shuffled together (also known as a Pinochle deck) for six players instead of four. The game plays almost identically to Euchre with a few important changes.

Each player starts with a seven card hand

If two of the same card are played, they cancel each other.

If the card that is lead is immediately canceled the following player may choose to lead any card.

If all cards are canceled, whoever lead takes the trick.

A team must take two tricks for a stopper.

This variant was developed in order to kill time and avoid the hassle that comes with having six players that want to play a game limited to four. Fitting with today’s theme, it has earned the affectionate title of Jewchre in reference to the hexagram shape formed by the two teams.

Now for the Magic one… I highly recommend not doing it. Ever.Think about the layout described above. Now apply it to Magic, specifically EDH.

Six players.

Two decks composed of two decks.

Each player gets to choose a commander in their combined decks’ colors.

Each player is seated directly across from and between his/her opponents.